Reel Love is a movie-set romance between a 'down-on-her-luck director', trying to find herself again following a divorce, and a struggling writer looking for his big break in the industry. Anna and John find one another at a tense moment in their lives and instantly click. After an awkward yet intimate moment, they're thrown together once more to save a vampire movie on the verge of crisis.

The plot for Reel Love is solid. Anna is a firece woman who is very good at her job, navigating a male-dominated industry. Her ex-husband is the perfect villain that everyone loves to hate. John is the sizzling screenwriter/bartender/AD/server, striving to publish a raw script that delves into the vulnerable world of addiction. Both Anna and John have loveable best friends and are surrounded by quirky side characters that compliment the plot. There was so much potential here and the story is absolutely an enjoyable one.

However... I'm reading this in 2024, three years after it's publication, and I was still met with a flurry of typos, continuity errors in the narrative and a generally flat tone. Reel Love is written in the third person (e.g. Anna felt... John found...) but there were multiple instances where it slipped into the first person instead. There's an instance where Tom Melton is spelt incorrectly and at least one case where Anna is referred to as 'he' instead of 'she' as she previously had. It was really disappointing as it drew me out of the book completely each time. I was also sad to say that there was definitely something missing throughout. There was a lack of 'energy'/'flow' in the writing. The whole story fell kind of flat, even during moments that should have felt tense.

I've rated it two stars because I genuinely enjoyed the premise but the execution was just not it, unfortunately...

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for a review.

This was definitely a steamy book with little to no plot, which is fine, but not necessarily what I was hoping for. The characters were good, but at times felt like we weren't getting enough development from them as the story went on. It was an interesting story, and perfect for a rom com, but it was just three stars for me!

Anna Kovacs is thirty-seven, divorced and her credit card just got declined. John Mills is twenty-seven, a part-time bartender slash screenwriter slash shirtless-werewolf-on-the-left, and he can't make rent.
After a hot hook-up and an even steamier argument, the two discover they’re working together to save a doomed movie production. Anna and John must find a way to navigate the rocky terrain of falling in love in an already tumultuous industry or lose their careers and their chance at a happily ever after.

This was cute and funny but honestly overall kind of average. I liked the characters but they didn't really grow much and it was spicier than I was expecting

Thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.
uhh honestly, I don't have the words to say, the way the book started kind of shook me a bit, It wasn't what I was expecting, and this is my first age gap romance where the woman is older, i'd say it was okay. i would definitely get into other books by the author, but this one was just there for me.

A pretty decent read, had good chemistry between the two main characters, but unfortunately lacked character progression. The mmc was somewhat boring and I was more interested in the fmc and her past rather than the mmc. Though it is a good palette cleanser if you’ve been reading heavy books!

2 Stars – Disappointing Formatting and Underdeveloped Story

I really wanted to enjoy *Reel Love* because the concept of a fan boy and his favorite director sounded intriguing, but unfortunately, I struggled to get through the book. The formatting was a big issue— the pages were black and uneven, and the text was cramped to the right side of the page, making it incredibly hard to follow the story.

As for the writing itself, I found it underdeveloped. I had a hard time connecting with the characters. The MFC’s struggles didn’t evoke much sympathy from me, and the MMC felt immature, which made it difficult to root for their relationship or their growth. While the premise had potential, the execution fell flat for me. I will not be reviewing this on good reads or elsewhere because I don’t want to hinder the books performance

Thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

It was ok, an easy read definitely but unfortunately it didn’t grip me.
The chemistry was off, the story line wasn’t great either. I gave 2⭐️⭐️ because it wasn’t hard to read and did pass the time.

I’m not keen on the way the colleagues trope and how it was portrayed in the book.
It could have been better with more development of the story line it felt rushed

The book idea was cute, and the plot was creative; not many people delve into the topic of movie-making without sounding pretentious. The author did that well. However, the execution of the book overall wasn’t great. The character development and the plot were both pretty severely lacking. The intro to and progression of the love story was too quick. I wouldn’t recommend this book.

Reel Love is a slow burn rom-com. It is written in 3rd person, which I do not really like. Also, the POV changes during the chapter.

This is a sweet story between a movie director and a screenwriter.

What you can expect:

- age gap (she is older)
- workplace romance
- forced proximity
- he falls first
- some spice

I liked the insight into the movie making process and the cover is cute.

But overall the plot was pretty predictable.

This is my first book from this author, but I would like to try others too.

Thank you Netgalley for a digital copy of the book. This is my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

This book was great! I loved the writing style and I loved the characters and their chemistry. This was a good romcom and a great pallet cleanser.

So honestly I think I would give this a 3.75/5 if I could but I felt like it should be bumped up rather then down. I thought the beginning was a bit awkward, I would've liked more background on who the characters were before hand, but honestly once it was past that it was a cute goofy good time. A girl trying to chase her dream in Hollywood and a young dreamy man with energy and life still in him. The age-gap romance style was cute as always and I was very very happy that it ended in a nice HEA for them. I also really loved that the woman was the older one since that isn't seen as much. It was a cute good time <3.

I thought this was cute read but it wasn’t quite for me in the end. I found parts of it quite repetitive and I thought some of the characters lacked depth in parts and there were areas of the story that felt rushed. I third act moment of miscommunication was also so frustrating and unnecessary and I felt like the resolution of that was very rushed for the sake of getting to the HEA quicker. I did think that the chemistry between between John and Anna was great, especially at the beginning.

Great book!! Realistic characters!! Great plot. I would read another book by this author. It had me engaged from start to finish.

I actually enjoyed this and I’m not a fan of the age gap
I loved the characters and how real they was no imagine world were everything is amazing and money if no issues

Lovey easy read, sweet romance good characters and fun read

A great romance novel with an older woman and a younger man getting together! They work together and it was entertaining to read their story! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I stayed up ALL night reading this.

Despite the formatting weirdness my kindle did to the beginning, this book hooked me from the start. I LOVE Anna, she’s probably my favorite FMC I’ve had in a long while. She’s hilarious, clever, and I find her refreshing.

I loved their chemistry so much! This was just a super fun and cute read!

Thank you NetGalley & BooksGoSocial for giving me access to this ebook! In this book we follow Anna Kovacs, a 37-year-old down-on-her-luck director, and John Mills, a 27-year-old struggling screenwriter with multiple side gigs. They start off with a hot hookup followed by a heated argument. Despite their rocky beginning, they soon find themselves working together on a failing movie production.
It was very cute, I liked to see an older woman (as I'm getting older myself!) I liked their "idiots-to-lovers" chemistry!

Evie Browning was able to create a unique and well written romance on a movie set. I thought the comedic elements worked overall and was invested in what was happening. The characters were fun and realistically done. It uses the slow burn perfectly and was glad it had that happy ever after.

If you are looking for an afternoon escape this is your book!
This book was a little bit different from the ones I usually read. Although the plot was slower, the characters were also more “real” in my opinion.
I loved the use of criticism in this book, There are discussions about feminism, about a woman taking what is considered a "man’s job" and being belittled since day one.
The author has a way with word and drawing emotions out of you in ways you don’t expect! I truly felt for the characters of this book